PAKISTAN:Pakistan's Islamist politicians yesterday described Gen Pervez Musharraf, the president, as "the root cause of all evil" as they reconciled themselves to defeat.
With counting done for about 245 of the 272 constituencies under contention in the lower house of parliament, which elects the prime minister, the main Islamist alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), won just three seats. Five years ago, it won 59.
The MMA was weakened ahead of the polls because an important faction, led by the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), alleged pre-poll rigging and boycotted the election.
But while party leaders cried foul, analysts said the MMA's defeat underlined its failure to win support in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), its traditional stronghold, in part because of a perception the government failed to protect citizens from suicide attacks.
Hasan Abbas, a Pakistan expert at Harvard's Kennedy school of government, said: "The MMA's dismal performance in the past five years has gone against them."
Local businessmen echoed that opinion. One said: "In the past five years, I have not invested even a single rupee in the NWFP. I was so disgusted with life under the mullahs that I moved my family to Islamabad."
Pakistan's senior security officials are convinced that the election results sent a powerful message. One said: "Now, at least, there is a ray of hope you could see more people getting up to join the fight against militants."
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistani scholar at Johns Hopkins University, said a distinction between the MMA and hardline groups dedicated to violence had to be recognised. "The defeat of the MMA to an extent will not necessarily change the way in which violence is carried out by militant groups," he said.
Still, the Islamist groups fear the repercussions of being pushed to the political periphery.
Khurshid Ahmed, the deputy head of the JI, said: "Denial of the political opportunity creates scenarios where people go towards violent means." -